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Fish disease–based travel restrictions lifted

​Posted May 14, 2014

Federal animal health authorities are reducing restrictions on the movement of dozens of fish species from Great Lakes states or the importation of them from Ontario or Quebec.

Officials with the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced in April that, starting June 2, the agency would no longer prohibit movement of 37 species of live fish that are susceptible to viral hemorrhagic septicemia from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin. The agency also will no longer restrict importation of such fish from Ontario or Quebec.

APHIS is removing a 2006 federal order that was issued in response to an outbreak of the disease in the Great Lakes region.

The order since has become duplicative of state regulations related to the disease, the announcement states.